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(3.) God cannot possibly do us wrong. All right hatred is from a real wrong, sense of wrong, or fear of wrong; either of those is an unjust imputation upon God, who cannot possibly do wrong to his creatures, because he cannot be unrighteous; Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance, Rom. 3. 5. My yivoro. For God is so far from being injurious in the least to us, that he doth cast about, and contrive our happiness in his laws, more than we can ourselves, or are willing he should do for us. Men cannot, if they consult but the sparks of reason, but confess the reasonableness of God's commands, and be satisfied in the righteousness of the duties enjoined, and the pro→ fitableness of the counsels set out in the gospel, and must needs look upon the felicity promised to be excellent and desirable, and therefore cannot upon any reasonable account charge God with doing them any wrong. Or let me argue thus: either God hath wronged us, or not; if not, it is unreasonable to disaffect him; if he hath, why should we hate him, seeing if God could do any injustice, he would not have the being of a God? For if it were possible, as soon as ever he should cease to be just and righteous, he would cease to be God, and destroy his own nature; for as every man in doing an unjust act, is less than a man, and loses the end of his own reason; so God, by doing any injustice, would be less than a God. Nay our hating him as a judge, is highly irrational, because of his equity and righteousness in all his proceedings. And because it is our own act in forcing him to that by our evil practices, which he is not willing to do but according to his own righteous nature, and for the vindication of his holiness in his law, cannot but do upon our final impenitency, and persisting in our transgressions.

(4.) God cannot be hurt by us. It is a folly among men to show their enmity where they cannot hurt. What an unreasonable boldness is it for a man to think he can grapple with omnipotence, and enter the

lists with the fountain of all strength and power? What is thy enmity, but a small wriggling against God? What disadvantage can accrue to him by thy opposing him? Just as much as the moon receives by the dog's barking at it, which neither stands still, nor alters its course, nor is frighted at the noise. Foolish man! that will not discover an enmity against a superior, but rakes it up in the ashes, and muzzles his anger till he be able to bite; and yet proclaims a war openly against heaven, as if he were too strong for God, and God too weak for him. As the light of God's face is too dazzling to be seen, so the arm of his power is too mighty to be oppressed by us. His almightiness is above the reach of our potsherd strength, as his infiniteness is above the capacity of our purblind understandings. His happiness is too firm to be disturbed by us, as well as his essence too glorious to be comprehended. What force canst thou have to resist the presence of him, before whom the rocks melt, and the heavens at length will be shrivelled up as parchment by the last fire?

(5) But though thou canst not hurt God, yet thou dost mightily wrong thyself. Senseless sinner! God is out of thy gunshot; thy arrows are too short for that mark, but his are long enough for thee; thy shot will fall before it reach him, but his arrows will both reach thy heart, and stick in it. Hatred in the world is attended sometimes with outward advantage; but what gain canst thou expect by this enmity? What refreshment is there by thy endeavouring to dry up the fountain? What good by labouring to destroy the original of goodness itself? What harm is it to the sun to shoot up arrows against it? Do they pierce its light, or shatter any of the sparks of it? No, but they fall down upon the archer's head. The opposition of a wicked man against God is much like a man's running his head against a rock, to be revenged on it for splitting his ship; whereby he bruiseth not the rock, but dashes out his own brains, and pays his life for a

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price of his folly. Poor man is like a potsherd, that justles with a rock, and bursts itself; and is not this the highest piece of madness? Woe unto him that strives with his Maker; let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth, Isa. 45. 9. Dost thou fight against the Rock of ages? It will rather blunt thy weapon than be hurt by thy arm; it will make thy sword fly back in pieces upon thy own face. Every wicked man is a greater enemy to himself than the devil is, and wrongs himself more than the devil can do; because he nourishes that sin in him which wars against his soul.

3. Consider the misery of such a state. Thou wilt be miserable with a witness; If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, 1 Cor. 16. 22. Let all the curses in heaven and earth light upon him. Let the mercy, wisdom, power, strength of God appear against him; let him not have an advocate to make any plea for him. Angels, men, devils will all appear against such a person.

(1) Thou canst not possibly escape vengeance. The Sodomites, whose sins had so long dared God's justice, might have better escaped than thou canst: but, alas; what force hath a puppy or worm in a lion's paw? Thou art no more in his hand than a fly between a giant's fingers. Go, foolish self-deluding creature, recollect thyself. Can such a bubble, dust, chaff, stubble, worse than nothing and vanity, wrestle with God? Ah, poor worm; wilt thou set thyself in a strutting array against omnipotency, far less in God's hands than a chicken new stripped of its shell in the talons of an eagle. Jacob, a holy man, wrestled with him upon a holy account, and broke his thigh; take heed in thy wrestling with him upon a sinful account, thou dost not break thy neck. If he be thy friend, none can hurt thee; but if thy enemy, none can relieve thee.

He is the best friend when men will love him, but as terrible an enemy as consuming fire, when men

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will hate him. Thou must be subject to him whether thou wilt or no, there is no remedy; if submission to his mercy be not free, subjection to his justice must be forced. We must be under his power whether we will or no: we cannot wrest ourselves out of the compass of his arm; if we go down to hell, he is there; if we dive to the bottom of the deep, thence his hand will fetch us out. We always have been, are still, and for ever must be within the reach of his almighty power. Whither wilt thou go? Is there any garrison to defend thee? any sanctuary to secure thee? any champion to stand for thee? If all the angels in heaven, and devils in hell, should rouse up themselves to be thy protectors, thou wouldest be just as happy, as if thou hadst the shelter of the dust of the balance, or a drop of a bucket. Can we blind his eye that he should not see, or deafen his ear that he should not hear, or bind his arm that he should not strike? Can we remove his jealousy by increasing it? Can we mitigate everlasting burnings by adding oil to them? Can our sins stand out against his judgments, or our persons successfully combat with his wrath? Before any of those can be done, the Creator must descend into our impotency. What man will confess he is able to do any of those, and yet he will walk in a path of enmity? Wrath will come, though it be slow in coming; it is slow, but sure; the longer it is preparing, the bitterer it will be in enduring. Let all devils and sinners in the world join together, how soon is God able to overthrow them, and turn their Babel-fort to their own confusion, and bury them in the ruins of their own works! Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished, Prov. 11. 21. How would he fling them all into hell, as one of us can a bag of dust or sand into the sea?

(2.) Thou dost even force God to destroy thee for his own content, and as it were provoke him to damn thee for his own ease; if thou wilt not lay;

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down thy arms, thou dost wrest wrath out of his hands; have quieted my spirit, Zech. 6. 8. He speaks of the angels which he had sent out against Babylon, those black horses which noted death and destruction; and those angels doing their work and duty, are said by himself to quiet his Spirit; so that God can have no rest in his own spirit but by thy submission or destruction. And the longer thou dost stand out, the more thou dost provoke God to take some course for the easing of himself; for punishment in another place he calls his ease. I will ease me of my adversaries, Isa. 1. 24; and the latter words explain it, I will avenge me of my enemies. Is not the honour of God concerned in his laws? and would he not make himself ridiculous to the sons of men, if he did not severely punish their violations of them?

(3.) God cannot save thee without disturbing the happiness of those that love him, and are loved by him. Thou wilt but make a disturbance in heaven by thy contrary disposition, and hinder that exact harmony; thy jarring principles could never agree with that comfort; thy enmity and division with that union; the repose of the saints would be disquieted, and their pleasure cooled for if they cared not for thy company in the world when they had many relics of enmity in themselves, and an imperfect holiness, they can less endure it in heaven, where their holiness is fully ripe, and their hatred against impiety perfectly strong; and God will not bring thee thither with that cursed nature thou hast, to damp their joy, and spoil the order of heaven. A state of wrath must necessarily succeed a state of enmity: for heaven can never be a place suitable to you, it will be as little agreeable to you, as your being there will be to God.

(4.) Thou hast the beginnings of hell in thee already. Enmity is a hellish disposition. As the perfection of love in heaven is a part of heaven's happiness, so the perfection of enmity in hell is a part of the damned's misery. The sight of God in hea

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